Microsoft Technology Briefing - September 2025

By Martin Moyér September 26, 2025
Microsoft Technology Briefing - September 2025

This month, Microsoft has announced several updates across multiple technical areas. In security, Microsoft is addressing vulnerabilities such as Cross-Site Scripting and enhancing threat detection capabilities against AI-driven phishing. Updates in modern work solutions include the rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat across apps and improved interoperability in Teams. Business applications saw the introduction of an AI-powered Sales Qualification Agent in Dynamics 365 Sales and online mode functionality in Field Service Mobile. Azure launched a new cloud region in Austria and introduced mandatory multifactor authentication. Additionally, advancements in Fabric and AI services enhance data governance and observability.

Notice: This briefing contains a curation of publicly available content, as well as AI-assisted summaries which may be inaccurate. View the content policy to learn more.

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Monthly Highlights

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Summary with key announcements and updates from Microsoft

Security Highlight
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Recent Microsoft Security Developments and Initiatives

Microsoft continues to address ongoing security challenges by tackling vulnerabilities such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), which remains prevalent in current applications. Is proactively mitigating risks associated with misconfigured postMessage handlers and has recently reported significant threats in the retail sector due to unpatched vulnerabilities. Additionally, Microsoft has enhanced its threat detection capabilities, identifying AI-driven phishing campaigns. Mandatory multi-factor authentication enforcement for Azure is starting October 2025. Security solutions, like Microsoft Defender and Purview, have shown substantial ROI and effectiveness in improving data protection strategies and reducing breach likelihood.

Modern-Work Highlight
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Recent Technical Developments in Microsoft Modern Work Solutions

Microsoft has introduced several updates across its modern work tools. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) now enables agents in Copilot Studio to communicate with external data sources, enhancing their responsiveness. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is rolling out in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, providing a unified chat experience. New features in Microsoft Teams include expanded interoperability and licensing changes as part of an agreement with the European Commission. Additionally, the Employee Self-Service Agent was showcased at the HR Tech conference, and Teams Phone extensibility is now generally available, streamlining contact center operations.

Business-Applications Highlight
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Recent Technical Developments in Microsoft Business Applications

Field Service Mobile now includes an Online mode that provides live Dataverse data access alongside offline functionality. Dynamics 365 Sales introduces an AI-powered Sales Qualification Agent for automating lead qualification and outreach. Precision wrap-up timers have been added to Dynamics 365 Contact Center. User defined functions in Power Apps are now generally available, enhancing app logic modularity. Teams Phone extensibility for Dynamics 365 Contact Center has reached general availability, streamlining customer engagement. Additionally, Power Pages Search now features Generative AI Summarization for improved user experience, and Dynamics 365 Contact Center is now available in Government Community Cloud Moderate.

Infrastructure Highlight
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Recent Infrastructure Developments in Microsoft Azure

Microsoft has launched a new cloud region in Austria to support local businesses and public administration in data storage and processing. Additionally, Azure has introduced mandatory multifactor authentication enforcement at the Azure Resource Manager layer set to begin on October 1, 2025. New features include the general availability of Multitenant Managed Logging in Container Insights for better log management in shared AKS clusters, and Vaulted backup for Azure Files (Premium) to enhance data protection. Furthermore, Azure Site Recovery now supports Virtual Machines with Premium SSD v2 disks, enabling improved disaster recovery capabilities.

Data-Ai Highlight
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Recent Technical Developments in Microsoft Fabric and AI Services

The Fabric Spark Run Series Analysis is now generally available, enhancing observability of Spark job executions. New zero-ETL mirroring capabilities for Google BigQuery and Oracle are in preview, enabling efficient data replication into OneLake. Anomaly detection has been added in the Real-Time Intelligence feature, currently in preview. Additionally, the SQL Database in Fabric has evolved with new application developer features, while the User Data Functions and Fabric Spark Monitoring APIs are now generally available, providing enhanced automation and observability. Data governance is strengthened with the introduction of Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policies.

Digital-App-Innovation Highlight
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Recent Technical Developments in Microsoft Digital App Innovation

The GitHub Copilot for Azure extension is now in Public Preview for Visual Studio 2022, integrating Azure developer tools via Azure MCP. The August update for Visual Studio 2022 (v17.14) introduces GPT-5 support, enhancing AI capabilities. A public roadmap for AI in Visual Studio outlines upcoming features aimed at improving developer experiences. Additionally, the Copilot Profiler Agent has been introduced in Visual Studio 2026 Insiders, offering an AI-driven approach to performance analysis. GitHub has also implemented post-quantum secure key exchange for SSH and is strengthening npm security in response to recent attacks.

Industry-Solutions Highlight
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Recent Technical Developments in Microsoft's Industry Solutions

DocumentDB has joined the Linux Foundation, enhancing its collaborative potential. Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales has shown measurable improvements in sales productivity. Microsoft has also transitioned 98% of its IT infrastructure to Azure, optimizing operations for over 200,000 employees. The release of Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC as open source revives a legacy coding language. Additionally, Azure Container Storage is now seven times faster, improving database performance. Microsoft is also focusing on AI in education, providing tools and training to help educators integrate AI skills into their curricula, and enhanced Microsoft Teams with AI capabilities.

Events Highlight
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Upcoming Microsoft Events: Innovation, Security, and AI Insights

Microsoft is set to host several exciting events. Join us for the Microsoft Discovery Hour focusing on low code AI solutions, and learn how to turn ideas into reality quickly. The Cloud and AI Endpoints Summit will showcase new developments like Windows 365 Link, enhancing user experiences. Don't miss the Microsoft Ignite 2025 conference in San Francisco, exploring AI impacts across industries. Additionally, the Microsoft Security Summit in Sweden will cover essential strategies for embedding AI in cybersecurity. Each event promises valuable insights and engaging discussions with industry leaders, so mark your calendars!

Events

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Upcoming and recent Microsoft events and webinars

Microsoft Discovery Hour: Innovate with Low Code AI and Agents

You’ve got the ideas. Now build the solutions – fast. What if you could turn your next big idea into a working app, automated workflow, or AI-powered agent in just minutes? No code. No complexity. Just your business expertise and natural language. Join us for Microsoft Discovery Hour: Innovate with Low Code AI and Agents, a virtual event for business professionals ready to lead with innovation.

Sep 30, 2025 Read more

Cloud and AI Endpoints Summit

Many organizations are now turning to cloud solutions like Windows 365 to revolutionize their endpoint and virtualization strategy. To make the Windows 365 access experience even more flexible to users, we are excited to announce the availability of Windows 365 Link, a purpose-built device that provides users with instant, secure access to their Windows 365 Cloud PCs, now in Sweden as well! Location: Microsoft Office, Regeringsgatan 25 Läs mer om Cloud and AI Endpoints Summit...

Oct 1, 2025 Read more

Agentic AI Solutions for Business Units in Banking and Insurance

Discover how AI and agent technology are transforming workflows, processes, and customer experiences in the banking and insurance industry. This event offers inspiring presentations, real-world cases, and practical examples of how leading organizations build and use agents to create business value - whether you work in business development, IT, HR, compliance, or other functions.

Oct 21, 2025 Read more

GitHub Universe 2025

GitHub’s two-day developer event celebrating innovation, collaboration, and the boundless potential of AI-powered development.

Oct 28, 2025 Read more

Microsoft Ignite 2025

Ignite possibilities. Get the edge you need to drive impact in the era of AI. Join us to bolster your knowledge, build connections, and explore emerging technologies. San Francisco, Moscone Center, November 18–21, 2025 (optional pre-day November 17).

Nov 18, 2025 Read more

AI Assistant for Everyone: Boost Productivity with Copilot Chat

Join our webinar and unlock practical strategies to maximize your productivity with Copilot Chat. Whether you're just getting started or looking to deepen your expertise, this session will equip you with actionable insights, prompting techniques, and hands-on demos to help you work smarter every day. Registration opens shortly...

Nov 19, 2025 Read more

Microsoft Security Summit Sweden

As organizations accelerate toward AI-powered transformation, one constant is clear: innovation cannot thrive without security at its foundation. Join us at the Microsoft Security Summit: Secure Foundations to Become a Frontier Firm, where we’ll explore how today’s most innovative organizations are embedding AI into the core of their cybersecurity strategy. Location: Grand Hôtel, Stallgatan 6 Läs mer om Microsoft Security Summit Sweden...

Nov 21, 2025 Read more

Microsoft Security Summit Sweden - Digital

As organizations accelerate toward AI-powered transformation, one constant is clear: innovation cannot thrive without security at its foundation. Join us at the Microsoft Security Summit: Secure Foundations to Become a Frontier Firm, where we’ll explore how today’s most innovative organizations are embedding AI into the core of their cybersecurity strategy.

Nov 21, 2025 Read more

Security

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Security updates, identity protection, compliance tools, and threat intelligence, including Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Security Copilot, Entra and more.

Why XSS still matters: MSRC’s perspective on a 25-year-old threat

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) has been a known vulnerability class for two decades, yet it continues to surface in modern applications, including those built with the latest frameworks and cloud-native architectures. At Microsoft, we still receive a steady stream of XSS reports across our services, from legacy portals to newly deployed single-page apps.

Sep 4, 2025 Read more

BlueHat Asia 2025: Closing soon: Submit your papers by September 14, 2025

The next chapter of the Microsoft Security Response Center’s (MSRC) BlueHat security conference is fast approaching. BlueHat Asia 2025 will take place in Bengaluru, India, on November 5 – 6, 2025 and the Call for Papers is now open. Submissions will be accepted through September 14, 2025...

Aug 27, 2025 Read more

postMessaged and Compromised

At Microsoft, securing the ecosystem means more than just fixing bugs—it means proactively hunting for variant classes, identifying systemic weaknesses, and working across teams to protect customers before attackers ever get the chance. This blog highlights one such effort: a deep dive into the risks of misconfigured postMessage handlers across Microsoft services and how MSRC worked with...

Aug 25, 2025 Read more

Retail at risk: How one alert uncovered a persistent cyberthreat​​

In the latest edition of our Cyberattack Series, we dive into real-world cases targeting retail organizations. With 60% of retail companies reporting operational disruptions from cyberattacks and 43% experiencing breaches in the past year, the stakes have never been higher. This post unpacks where a single alert led to the discovery of a major persistent threat...

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

AI vs. AI: Detecting an AI-obfuscated phishing campaign

Microsoft Threat Intelligence recently detected and blocked a credential phishing campaign that likely used AI-generated code to obfuscate its payload and evade traditional defenses, demonstrating a broader trend of attackers leveraging AI to increase the effectiveness of their operations and underscoring the need for defenders to understand and anticipate AI-driven threats.

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

Microsoft Purview delivered 30% reduction in data breach likelihood

A recent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) Of Microsoft Purview study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Microsoft, offers valuable insights into how organizations are modernizing their data protection strategies. The study covers the tangible benefits of unifying data security, data governance and data compliance under a single platform—an approach exemplified by Microsoft Purview.

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

Microsoft Defender delivered 242% return on investment over three years​​

​The latest 2025 commissioned Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study reveals a 242% ROI over three years for organizations that chose Microsoft Defender. It helps security leaders consolidate tools, reduce overhead, and empower their SecOps teams with operational efficiencies powered by AI and automation. In total, the study found Defender delivered $17.8 million in benefits and paid for itself in less than six months. ​

Sep 18, 2025 Read more

Microsoft Purview innovations for your Fabric data: Unify data security and governance for the AI era

The Microsoft Fabric and Purview teams are thrilled to participate in the European Microsoft Fabric Community Conference.

Sep 16, 2025 Read more

Azure mandatory multifactor authentication: Phase 2 starting in October 2025

Microsoft Azure is announcing the start of Phase 2 multi-factor authentication enforcement at the Azure Resource Manager layer, starting October 1, 2025.

Sep 5, 2025 Read more

Storm-0501’s evolving techniques lead to cloud-based ransomware

Financially motivated threat actor Storm-0501 has continuously evolved their campaigns to achieve sharpened focus on cloud-based tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). While the threat actor has been known for targeting hybrid cloud environments, their primary objective has shifted from deploying on-premises endpoint ransomware to using cloud-based ransomware tactics.

Aug 27, 2025 Read more

Microsoft ranked number one in modern endpoint security market share third year in a row

For a third year a row, Microsoft has been named the number one leader for endpoint security market share, as featured in a new IDC report.

Aug 27, 2025 Read more

Securing and governing the rise of autonomous agents​​

Hear directly from Corporate Vice President and Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Identity, Igor Sakhnov, about how to secure and govern autonomous agents. This blog is part of a new ongoing series where our Deputy CISOs share their thoughts on what is most important in their respective domains. In this series you will get practical advice, forward-looking commentary on where the industry is going, things you should stop doing, and more. ​

Aug 26, 2025 Read more

Modern Work

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Updates on Microsoft 365, Copilot & Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, Viva, and other productivity and collaboration tools

Connecting an Agent in Copilot Studio to an MCP Server

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standardized framework designed to enable seamless communication between agents and external data or tool sources. By leveraging MCP, agents can dynamically invoke tools, exchange structured data, and access enriched contextual information from connected servers. This approach moves agents beyond static capabilities...

Aug 26, 2025 Read more

What’s New in Microsoft Teams | August 2025

Welcome to the August edition of What’s New in Microsoft Teams! As Teams continues to evolve, this month’s updates bring a fresh wave of innovation designed to help you work smarter, collaborate more effectively, and stay connected across your organization. Whether you’re catching up on conversations or preparing for your next big meeting, Teams is here to support your productivity...

Aug 28, 2025 Read more

What’s new in Microsoft 365 Copilot | August 2025

Welcome to the August 2025 edition of What's New in Microsoft 365 Copilot! Every month, we highlight new features and enhancements to keep Microsoft 365 admins up to date with Copilot features that help your users be more productive and efficient in the apps they use every day. Let’s take a closer look at what’s new this month: Copilot Control System: Copilot management resources...

Aug 29, 2025 Read more

Mitigate Oversharing to Govern Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agents

Generative and agentic AI are transforming how organizations operate, but it also can introduce new risks and amplify existing risks. Tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot generate content based on what the user has permission to access in an environment. That means any gaps in governance, such as over-permissioned sites, inherited access, or lack of sensitivity label protections, become amplified.

Sep 2, 2025 Read more

Evolving our productivity offerings to resolve European competition concerns about Teams

Microsoft recently finalized an agreement with the European Commission (Microsoft’s “Commitments”) in which we will expand interoperability and data portability resources, and make additional changes to licensing and pricing for Microsoft 365, Office 365, and Microsoft Teams.

Sep 12, 2025 Read more

At HR Tech this week? Check out the Employee Self-Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot

As organizations embrace AI in the workplace to enhance employee productivity and engagement in this era of AI, we’re excited to showcase our latest innovations in employee experience: the Employee Self-Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Come check it out along with our other employe experience solutions at the HR Tech conference...

Sep 15, 2025 Read more

Copilot Chat comes to the Microsoft 365 apps

Starting today, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and agents are rolling out in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote for all users—creating a unified chat experience across the apps millions of people use every day at work. These updates help make Copilot your true personal AI assistant for work: Whether you’re drafting a document, analyzing a spreadsheet, or catching up on email, Copilot is right there, ready to answer questions, create content, spark ideas, and automate tasks.

Sep 15, 2025 Read more

Introducing Copilot Notebooks: A whole new way to work with AI in OneNote

Ever imagined OneNote as more than just a place for your notes? What if it could help you organize your thinking, bring together files from across Microsoft 365, and even help you reason through complex tasks and ideas with the power of AI? By bringing Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks to OneNote, we’re redefining how you work in OneNote by turning it into a dynamic, AI-powered workspace that helps you stay focused, find answers faster, and enhance your productivity.

Sep 16, 2025 Read more

The new GitHub app for Teams: from conversation to code

Meet the reimagined GitHub app for Teams: an AI-powered app to collaborate with GitHub Copilot right inside your Teams conversations.

Sep 18, 2025 Read more

What’s new in Microsoft 365 Copilot | July 2025

September 2025 UPDATE: The Interpreter licensing terms previously announced in this blog have been revised. Now, 20 hours of interpretation is included (increased from 2 hours) per user per month with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Access beyond the hours included is subject to available capacity. Welcome to the July 2025 edition of What's new in Microsoft 365 Copilot!

Sep 22, 2025 Read more

AI and Microsoft Teams: A New Era of Collaboration

Earlier this year, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index introduced the concept of the “Frontier Firm”, a new kind of organization where AI is available to every employee and even acts as a collaborator on projects. For many of these organizations, Microsoft Teams has been the hub where work happens; where people meet, plan, and build together. As Frontier Firms...

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

Streamline your contact center telephony with Teams Phone extensibility

Microsoft Teams Phone brings intelligent, cloud-based calling to Teams, streamlining operations and delivering secure, reliable voice experiences. Until recently, however, enabling enterprise calling in the contact center meant deploying separate solutions, adding administrative complexity and redundant costs...

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

Business Applications

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Dynamics 365 and Power Platform updates

Go Beyond Offline: Introducing Online Mode for Field Service Mobile

We’re excited to introduce Online mode, a new capability that allows technicians to access live Dataverse data from the Offline-First application, giving users the best of both worlds: offline reliability and real-time access.

Aug 25, 2025 Read more

AI in the inbox: Are your customers ready to embrace AI-powered outreach?

Dynamics 365 Sales offers Sales Qualification Agent, which works around the clock to automate pipeline qualification and improve lead quality. Sales Qualification Agent proactively researches information about the lead and company, and can identify customer fit and stage in the buying journey. The agent can also engage hundreds of leads at once with personalized e-mails and follow-ups.

Aug 28, 2025 Read more

Boost productivity with precision wrap-up timers in Dynamics 365

In modern contact centers, operational efficiency hinges on how quickly service representatives can transition between customer interactions. One often overlooked but critical phase is the wrap-up period—when service representatives finalize notes, update records, and prepare for the next engagement. Until now, wrap-up timers in Dynamics 365 Contact Center were limited to minute-level granularity.

Sep 2, 2025 Read more

Power Apps’ User defined functions GA

User defined functions in Power Apps' Canvas apps have reached general availability (GA)! Use them to modularize your logic making apps easier to understand, test, and maintain.

Sep 2, 2025 Read more

Teams Phone extensibility for Dynamics 365 Contact Center generally available

We’re thrilled to announce today the general availability of Teams Phone extensibility for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center. This milestone marks the next chapter in our commitment to modernizing customer engagements and empowering organizations to deliver exceptional experiences at scale...

Sep 3, 2025 Read more

Understand your customers better with constrained speech recognition

In today’s voice-first world, it’s not enough for systems to simply hear what users say. They need to understand it with precision. In high-stakes environments like healthcare, finance, or enterprise IT, voice interfaces must balance natural conversation with strict control over vocabulary and intent. Many organizations rely on voice AI agents to collect critical information.

Sep 8, 2025 Read more

Moving sales, service, and finance to the Frontier with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Today, we’re announcing the addition of role-based AI solutions to Microsoft 365 Copilot for sales, service, and finance professionals.

Sep 10, 2025 Read more

Announcing General Availability of Power Pages Search with Generative AI Summarization

We are pleased to announce the General Availability (GA) of Power Pages Search with Generative AI Summarization. This capability enhances the search experience on Power Pages sites by combining traditional search with AI-generated summaries, helping site visitors find information more efficiently and in the language that they are comfortable with. How visitors benefit from AI-powered...

Sep 11, 2025 Read more

Dataverse Auditing: Enhancing Trust and Transparency in the Age of AI

Key Updates about Dataverse Auditing -Empowering Data Stewardship, Privacy, and Control...

Sep 11, 2025 Read more

Create empathetic agents with HD voices in Dynamics 365 Contact Center

In today’s fast-paced digital world, customer experience is paramount. Businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to engage with their customers and provide seamless, personalized interactions on self-service channels. One of the common challenges in customer interactions is the mismatch between customer sentiment and the voice agent’s response. This can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction, ultimately impacting customer loyalty. For instance, a...

Sep 12, 2025 Read more

Dynamics 365 Contact Center now available in GCC-M

We are pleased to announce the availability of Dynamics 365 Contact Center in Government Community Cloud Moderate (GCC-M), signifying a significant advancement in the communications landscape for government organizations. This launch provides public sector entities with secure, compliant, and innovative contact center technology tailored to the unified voice and digital engagement needs of federal, state and local agencies. Recognizing...

Sep 15, 2025 Read more

Personal Developer Environments: Secure, governed innovation in Power Platform

Personal Developer Environments (PDEs) are reshaping how organizations adopt Power Platform capabilities - like Copilot Studio agents, Power Apps, and Power Automate flows - by enabling secure, governed innovation.

Sep 18, 2025 Read more

Infrastructure

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Updates on Azure cloud services, including Azure compute, networking, storage and hybrid solutions, Arc, Kubernetes, and more

[Launched] Generally Available: Microsoft Azure now available from cloud region in Austria

Microsoft announces the opening of its cloud region in Austria to accelerate digital transformation and AI innovation. The cloud region will enable companies and public administration in Austria to store and process their data securely, in compliance with...

Aug 25, 2025 Read more

Protecting Azure Infrastructure from silicon to systems

At Microsoft, secure design begins at the foundation of our computing stack—the silicon level—and extends through every layer of the cloud.

Aug 25, 2025 Read more

Microsoft Cost Management updates—July & August 2025

You need to know what you’re spending, where your money is being spent, and how to plan for the future. Nobody wants a surprise bill—and that’s where Microsoft Cost Management comes in.

Sep 4, 2025 Read more

Azure mandatory multifactor authentication: Phase 2 starting in October 2025

Microsoft Azure is announcing the start of Phase 2 multifactor authentication enforcement at the Azure Resource Manager layer, starting October 1, 2025.

Sep 5, 2025 Read more

[Launched] Generally Available: Multitenant Managed Logging in Container Insights

The Multitenant Managed Logging feature in Container Insights is now generally available, offering customers who operate shared AKS clusters the ability to segregate container logs by team. This functionality enables teams to independently manage and acce...

Sep 9, 2025 Read more

Accelerating AI and databases with Azure Container Storage, now 7 times faster and open source

The next major release of Azure Container Storage delivers up to 7 times higher IOPS and 4 times less latency compared to previous versions.

Sep 15, 2025 Read more

Azure Kubernetes Service Automatic: Fast and frictionless Kubernetes for all

Azure Kubernetes Service Automatic helps teams go from commit to cloud without friction, accelerating delivery and unleashing innovation.

Sep 16, 2025 Read more

Agent Factory: Creating a blueprint for safe and secure AI agents

Azure AI Foundry brings together security, safety, and governance in a layered process enterprises can follow to build trust in their agents.

Sep 17, 2025 Read more

[Launched] Generally Available: Vaulted backup for Azure Files (Premium)

Announcing the General availability of vaulted backup for Azure Files shares premium! Azure Backup brings vaulted protection to Azure Files shares premium, to ensure business continuity and compliance, even in the face of accidental deletion, malicious a...

Sep 22, 2025 Read more

Accelerate migration and modernization with agentic AI

At the Migrate and Modernize Summit, we’re announcing a comprehensive set of agentic AI solutions and offerings to accelerate transformation and reduce friction.

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

[Launched] Generally Available: GitHub Copilot app modernization capabilities for Java and .NET are now available

App modernization is essential for enterprises to stay secure, scalable and innovative—but traditionally it requires a lot of effort that can be redundant and complex. With GitHub Copilot app modernization, developers can now stay focused on innovation wh...

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

[Launched] Generally Available: Azure Site Recovery Support for Virtual Machines with Premium SSD v2 disks

Announcing the General Availability of Azure Site Recovery (ASR) for Virtual Machines with Premium SSD v2 disks. ASR provides seamless disaster recovery for Virtual Machines across Azure Regions and from on-premises to Azure, helping organizations maintai...

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

Data & AI

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Updates and news on Azure AI, Azure OpenAI Service, Synapse Analytics, Fabric, cloud databases, and more

Agent Factory: Top 5 agent observability best practices for reliable AI

Ensuring the reliability, safety, and performance of AI agents is critical. That’s where agent observability comes in.

Aug 27, 2025 Read more

Agent Factory: From prototype to production—developer tools and rapid agent development

It's no longer whether you can build an agent—it’s how fast and seamlessly you can go from idea to enterprise-ready deployment.

Sep 3, 2025 Read more

FabCon Vienna: Build data-rich agents on an enterprise-ready foundation

Learn about the new features and enhancements announced for Microsoft Fabric at FabCon Vienna 2025...

Sep 16, 2025 Read more

Fabric Spark Run Series Analysis (Generally Available)

Fabric Spark Run Series Analysis is a powerful observability feature designed to help you better understand, compare, and optimize your recurring Spark job executions. Building on the momentum from preview and the announcement of the Autotune feature at the Fabric Conference, Run Series Analysis has expanded capabilities, improved accessibility, and enhanced engineering infrastructure to support …

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

Mirroring: New Sources and Capabilities to Support Zero -ETL Data Unification

Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric has significantly transformed data access making data unification for all your AI and BI needs simple, requiring zero-ETL. Mirroring for Google BigQuery and Oracle are now in preview along with ability to chat with your Mirrored data directly in a Data Agent. Azure SQL Managed Instance is also GA with support …

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

AI–Powered Real-Time Intelligence with Anomaly Detection (Preview)

A new AI capability in Microsoft Fabric’s Real-Time Intelligence (RTI) is available with a preview of anomaly detection. This marks the start of a journey to empower users with AI-driven, scalable, proactive real-time data experiences. Learn more about the other Real-Time Intelligence announcements in our documentation. Unlocking Value with AI in Real-Time Intelligence We are …

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

Unlocking Enterprise ready SQL database in Microsoft Fabric: ALM, Backup, Copilot & more

Microsoft Fabric continues to evolve as a unified data platform, and the latest updates to SQL Database in Fabric as a fully managed database SaaS offering, brings a suite of application developer centric and enterprise-grade features that elevates security, flexibility, and developer productivity. Here’s a breakdown of the most impactful enhancements. …

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

Fabric Spark Monitoring APIs (Generally Available)

Fabric Spark Monitoring APIs offers powerful new observability capabilities and enhanced automation to Spark workloads within Microsoft Fabric! Based on your feedback, here’s what’s new! We’ve continued refining the APIs to meet evolving user needs. Spark Advisor API – Provides recommendations and skew diagnostics to help identify bottlenecks and optimize performance. Resource Usage API – …

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

Fabric User Data Functions (Generally Available)

During preview, thousands of users have leveraged created functions to embed their business logic into their Fabric ecosystem. We have seen sophisticated solutions for a wide variety of use cases from data engineering, with Data pipelines and Notebooks, to Translytical applications using Power BI reports. Benefits of using User Data Functions Key features of User …

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

Protecting Your Fabric Data Using Purview (Generally Available)

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policies for Fabric This is a significant milestone for organizations looking to strengthen their data governance and security posture within the unified, end-to-end analytics platform that is Microsoft Fabric. In today’s data-driven world, data is your most valuable asset. But with great data comes great responsibility – the responsibility to …

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

Mirroring for Google BigQuery in Microsoft Fabric (Preview)

This new capability extends Microsoft Fabric’s zero-ETL data movement strategy, enabling customers to replicate data from BigQuery into OneLake—securely, efficiently, and in near real-time. What is Mirroring? Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric allows customers to replicate their operational and warehouse data sources directly into OneLake without complex ETL pipelines. This ensures data stays fresh and is …

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

Unlocking LLM-Powered through Data Agent from your Mirrored Databases in Microsoft Fabric

Fabric Data Agent now support mirrored databases–making it easier than ever to put your operational data to work with AI. As organizations depend on an ever-growing mix of data sources, the ability to seamlessly integrate and analyze data—no matter where it resides—is critical. This is where mirroring in Fabric comes in. With open mirroring, you …

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

Digital & App Innovation

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Updates on application modernization and development with Azure App Services, Functions, Kubernetes Service, Github, DevOps, and more

GitHub Copilot for Azure (Preview) Launches in Visual Studio 2022 with Azure MCP Support

The GitHub Copilot for Azure extension is now in Public Preview for Visual Studio 2022 (17.14+). It brings a curated set of Azure developer tools—exposed through the Azure MCP server—directly into GitHub Copilot Agent Mode in Visual Studio. The extension automatically installs and manages the Azure MCP server, so you can query resources, diagnose issues,

Aug 25, 2025 Read more

The Visual Studio August Update is here – smarter AI, better debugging, and more control

The August 2025 update for Visual Studio 2022 (v17.14) is now available, and it’s all about helping developers stay focused, productive, and in control. Whether you’re building games, tuning performance, or exploring AI, this release brings meaningful improvements that make everyday development smoother and smarter. GPT-5 support now available We’re excited to announce that GPT-5...

Aug 26, 2025 Read more

Roadmap for AI in Visual Studio (September)

Today, we’re excited to share our public roadmap, which outlines the next steps in evolving Visual Studio with AI-powered agentic experiences. With every month, we aim to deliver smarter, faster, and more intuitive tools that enhance your coding experience. Disclaimer: The items outlined here represent ongoing work for the month. They are not commitments or...

Aug 27, 2025 Read more

Build your own Microsoft Docs AI assistant with Azure Container Apps and Azure OpenAI

Learn how to deploy a self-hosted AI assistant that leverages Microsoft Learn content via the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Azure OpenAI. It’s fast, secure, and ready for developer use in real-world apps. Prerequisite This guide assumes you already have an Azure OpenAI resource provisioned in your subscription, with a deployed model (e.g., gpt-4, gpt-4.1,

Sep 4, 2025 Read more

Democratizing Performance: The Copilot Profiler Agent in Action on Real Code

We’re excited to announce the Copilot Profiler Agent available in Visual Studio 2026 Insiders, it’s an AI-powered performance assistant built directly into Visual Studio. Forget staring at endless call trees or walls of mysterious numbers that leave you asking, “where do I even start?” The Copilot Profiler Agent changes that. Instead of raw data, you...

Sep 11, 2025 Read more

Building personal apps with open source and AI

Hear about the personal tools we use to improve our workflows (and how to get started building your own) on this episode of the GitHub Podcast.

Sep 12, 2025 Read more

Post-quantum security for SSH access on GitHub

GitHub is introducing post-quantum secure key exchange methods for SSH access to better protect Git data in transit.

Sep 15, 2025 Read more

Meet the GitHub MCP Registry: The fastest way to discover MCP Servers

This is your new home base for discovering MCP servers. Learn how we’re working with the broader community on MCP publication and discovery.

Sep 16, 2025 Read more

Our plan for a more secure npm supply chain

Addressing a surge in package registry attacks, GitHub is strengthening npm's security with stricter authentication, granular tokens, and enhanced trusted publishing to restore trust in the open source ecosystem.

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

A step-by-step guide to modernizing Java projects with GitHub Copilot agent mode

Learn how to use GitHub Copilot agent mode to modernize legacy Java projects with guided upgrades, automated fixes, and cloud-ready migrations.

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

Teaching the LLM Good Habits: How Azure MCP Uses Best-Practice Tools

Why best practices matter (and why many people skip them) Let’s be honest: when you’re in the zone shipping code or wiring up infrastructure, “best practices” can feel like that nagging voice telling you to eat your vegetables. We all know they’re good for us… but in the rush to get things working, they’re often...

Sep 23, 2025 Read more

GitHub Copilot gets smarter at finding your code: Inside our new embedding model

Learn about a new Copilot embedding model that makes code search in VS Code faster, lighter on memory, and far more accurate.

Sep 24, 2025 Read more

Industry Solutions & Innovation

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Updates and news on research, skilling, as well as tailored solutions and innovations for industries including healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and more

DocumentDB joins the Linux Foundation

We'll create an independent identity for DocumentDB and provide a conduit for database providers to contribute to our mission.

Aug 25, 2025 Read more

Using AI to redefine how we work in Microsoft Outlook, the app Microsoft employees live in at work

Microsoft Digital stories In just a few short years, work has changed in fundamental ways. The rapid rise of AI has brought an entirely new mindset to the workplace. To adapt to that shifting mindset, we’re reimagining how the tools employees use meet them in the moments that matter. That’s especially true for things they...

Aug 28, 2025 Read more

Closing the deal with Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales at Microsoft

Microsoft Digital stories We didn’t just hope Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales would make a difference for our sales team here at Microsoft—we measured it. The results were outstanding. In the first few months after adopting Copilot for Sales, our sellers experienced the following: These aren’t projections or pilot estimates. They’re real results from real...

Aug 28, 2025 Read more

Bringing BASIC back: Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC is now Open Source

For decades, fragments and unofficial copies of Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC have circulated online, mirrored on retrocomputing sites, and preserved in museum archives. Coders have studied the code, rebuilt it, and even run it in modern systems. Today, for the first time, we're officially releasing it under an open-source license.

Sep 3, 2025 Read more

Modernize public finance with AI: Informed budgeting for economic growth

To make every budgeted dollar count towards economic growth, finance leaders should shift towards informed budgeting. Informed budgeting uses performance metrics, citizen needs, and economic forecasts to allocate resources more effectively. Here’s how this approach can benefit public finance agencies and economies.

Sep 3, 2025 Read more

Modernizing IT infrastructure at Microsoft: A cloud-native journey with Azure

Microsoft Digital stories At Microsoft, we are proudly a cloud-first organization: Today, 98% of our IT infrastructure—which serves more than 200,000 employees and incorporates over 750,000 managed devices—runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud. The company’s massive transition from traditional datacenters to a cloud-native infrastructure on Azure has fundamentally reshaped our IT operations. By adopting a...

Sep 4, 2025 Read more

Microsoft at IBC 2025: Accelerating the frontier of media and entertainment with AI

Frontier Firms in media embrace agentic AI to unlock creativity, transform engagement, and accelerate innovation across the industry.

Sep 9, 2025 Read more

Reimagining how we collaborate with Microsoft Teams and AI agents

Microsoft Digital stories In 2017, the introduction of Microsoft Teams revolutionized how our employees connected and collaborated. Fast forward to 2025, and the employee experience landscape has evolved dramatically, both here at Microsoft and in the world at large. Teams remains the backbone of enterprise collaboration at Microsoft and for millions of information workers globally. But today, it’s AI-powered...

Sep 11, 2025 Read more

Our commitment to help build AI skills in higher education

Last week, Microsoft announced a new set of commitments to ensure students and educators are equipped with the most critical skills to thrive in an AI-powered economy. These efforts are about more than access—they’re about impact. By delivering cutting-edge tools, training, and verified credentials, we’re helping faculty across all higher education institutions lead more confidently in the classroom...

Sep 12, 2025 Read more

Accelerating AI and databases with Azure Container Storage, now 7 times faster and open source

The next major release of Azure Container Storage delivers higher IOPS and less latency compared to previous versions.

Sep 16, 2025 Read more

Supercharge your workflow with real-time information from the Microsoft Learn MCP Server

Stay focused and on track by connecting your AI agents directly to trusted Microsoft documentation. With the shift toward more AI-powered workplaces, developers and IT teams are spending less time searching the web and more time relying on AI tools and agents for help. But AI is only as good as the knowledge it can access—and even the most advanced AI models...

Sep 17, 2025 Read more

Accelerating transformation: How we’re reshaping Microsoft with continuous improvement and AI

Technology companies are really people companies. In an age of rapidly advancing AI, losing sight of this reality leads to an overemphasis on new tools while neglecting opportunities for the transformational change that AI offers. Moving forward, the winners will be the companies that prioritize technological and operational excellence. Microsoft Digital, our company’s IT organization,

Sep 18, 2025 Read more
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